Japanese Market Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is notably lower on Monday, giving up some of the gains in the previous session, with the Nikkei 225 falling below the 28,100 level, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, as traders booked profits after the strong gains in the previous session. Financial stocks are weak.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 193.26 or 0.68 percent at 28,070.31, after hitting a low of 28,067.94 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is plummeting almost 11 percent after its subsidiary posted a huge quarterly loss, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is adding more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda and Toyota are edging down 0.1 to 0.2 percent each.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging up 0.5 percent and Tokyo Electron is advancing more than 2 percent, while Screen Holdings is edging down 0.2 percent. In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is losing more than 1 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is down almost 1 percent and Mizuho Financial is declining 1.5 percent.

The major exporters are mixed, with Sony edging up 0.1 percent, while Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric and Canon are flat. Among the other major losers, Dowa Holdings is plummeting more than 14 percent, Olympus is plunging almost 9 percent and Dai Nippon Printing is sliding more than 7 percent, while Fujikura, Nikon, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust and Mitsubishi Motors are losing more than 4 percent each. Taisei and Toppan are declining almost 4 percent each, while Daiichi Sankyo, Aozora Bank, Seven & I Holdings, Sumitomo Heavy Industries and NTN are down more than 3 percent each.

Conversely, Shiseido is surging almost 6 percent and Toto is gaining more than 5 percent, while M3, Casio Computer and NTT Data are adding more than 3 percent each. Nidec and Hoya are up almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 139 yen-range on Monday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw further upside during trading on Friday following the remarkable rally seen over the course of Thursday's session. With the extended upward move, the Dow reached a nearly three-month closing high, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 jumped to their best closing levels in almost two months.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq surged 209.18 points or 1.9 percent to 11,323.33, the S&P 500 shot up 36.56 points or 0.9 percent to 3,992.93 and the Dow rept up 32.49 points or 0.1 percent to 33,747.86.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.8 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both climbed by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices spiked on Friday, supported by a weak dollar and reports about China cutting quarantine restrictions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $2.49 or 2.9 percent at $88.96 a barrel.